Politickles

Feel free to publish, post, or pass on Your Weekly Politickle by F.R. Duplantier:

IN HOC SIGNO VINCES
Raise high the holy cross
And show them Who is boss:
Fight the merchants of death
With every breath
And never count the cost.

From the archive:

SCHADENFREUDE
Why do liberals like to besmirch
Institutions confirmed by research
As conducive to wealth,
Happiness, and health –
Such as marriage, the family, and church?
(1998)

Last week’s limerick:

RINOPLASTY
“If you don’t want your votes cast in vain,
Then wash Newt, Rick, and Ron down the drain;
Accept candidate Romney
As the mandated nominee:
Be consoled with a clone of McCain!”

This latest erosion of our first freedom should make all Americans pause. When the government tampers with a freedom so fundamental to the life of our nation, one shudders to think what lies ahead. – Timothy Dolan

We need to stand up and say confidently and resolutely to Kathleen Sebelius, her thugs at HHS, and her puppet-master in the White House: Your view is false and untrue; it radically violates human good and is destructive of communal integrity. Forcing persons wrongfully to cooperate in actions they judge to be evil is evil. And no president, king, or emperor rightly demands others to do what is evil. We won’t do it. – Christian Brugger

What if we all said no?

[I]t is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres. The seriousness of these threats needs to be clearly appreciated at every level of ecclesial life. Of particular concern are certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion. – Benedict XVI

In August 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services issued an interim final rule that will require most health insurance plans to cover preventive services for women including recommended contraceptive services without charging a co-pay, co-insurance or a deductible. . . . Today the department is announcing that the final rule on preventive health services will ensure that women with health insurance coverage will have access to the full range of the Institute of Medicine’s recommended preventive services, including all FDA-approved forms of contraception. – Kathleen Sebelius

This is going to be a long year.

Between 2000 and 2010, 160 thousand Christians were being killed each year because of their faith (OCSE figures). In 52 countries across the world (35 of which are Muslim countries), followers of Christ are treated as second rate citizens. In many cases, physically eliminating them is not considered an offence. The OCSE representative for the fight against discrimination put it like this: “A Christian is killed every five minutes because of their religious faith.” The massacre of Coptic Christians took place just a few days ago. Dominique Mamberti, the Holy See’s “foreign affairs minister” took stock of the situation, saying: “Jesus’ followers are the most persecuted religious group on Earth.” – La Stampa

Complex Persecution

There was a time in the history of the homosexual movement when their demand was for “tolerance.” That time has passed. Now, homosexual activists have completely reversed themselves and routinely demand an aggressive intolerance — for any viewpoints that disagree with theirs, that is. And what’s shocking is that, in many cases, large organizations are bowing to such demands. – Peter Sprigg

Tolerance for Bigots?

The Intolerance of the “Tolerant”

The Truth Will Set You Free!

The overt and aggressive private and public anti-Christian sentiment so evident in Iraq . . . is not limited to Iraq. It is to be found throughout the lesser and greater Middle East, throughout Asia. It is to be found also in Africa and increasingly it is being found within the once-Christian lands of Western Europe. – Cardinal Seán Brady, archbishop of Armagh, Ireland

Free to Serve

Over the next several decades, Christianity will become a faith that can speak in the public square less and less freely. A society where faith is prevented from vigorous public expression is a society that has fashioned the state into an idol. And when the state becomes an idol, men and women become the sacrificial offering. – Charles Chaput

Coming to America

How blessed we are to have lived during the reigns of two of the greatest popes ever!

We know about the scandal that first broke eight years ago. I won’t rehash the disgusting particulars. Who has been one of very few Cardinals that has done or said anything to forcefully and effectively address this? Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger — Pope Benedict the Great. Ask Marcel Macial. Recall the Good Friday sermon by Cardinal Ratzinger in the reign of his predecessor. Remember his speech before the last conclave. And think of the constant upholding of Tradition and faith in both positions. He has taught, maintained and held the truth that makes us holy. It isn’t the orthodox Bishops and pastors that are likely to abuse children, to abuse the Holy Mass, to abuse the faithful by denying them truth. Yet we see whom the media seeks to destroy, and we should ask ourselves, “Why?” – St. Louis Catholic

This AP story is typical of the genre. Bias is evident throughout. Note the repeated use of the words “stall” and “languish” to describe a pace typical of any bureaucracy. Worse, though, is the insinuation that the Vatican is somehow responsible for the disciplining of a diocesan priest, when in fact every bishop is sovereign in his own see. If the bishop knew that this priest was a threat to children and did not take steps to restrict him from contact with them, then it is the bishop’s — and the priest’s — fault, not Ratzinger’s or anyone else’s.

When will we see an AP article on the deliberate infiltration of the Church by homosexuals determined to destroy it from within?

Every year, the forces of evil get very anxious as we reach Holy Week. After six weeks of purification and prayer, we reach the great celebration of Christ’s victory over sin and our reconciliation with God. Satan is a sore loser.

So the Christian celebration of the Lord’s passion, death, and resurrection is accompanied by the yearly ritual of Christ-bashing in the mainstream media. — Zenit

No subject is taboo to free thinkers — no subject but one, belief in God. For atheism is the opiate of the intellectuals, whose minds are thereby dulled to every token of divinity. The faithful will be outcasts in the new order, and the measure of the “freedom” of what will pass for thought will be the fervency of one’s nonbelief. . . .

Will our enlightened brethren suffer us to exist as harmless anomalies and quaint anachronisms? Afraid not. No, our faith is a constant challenge to their infidelity; it makes them feel bad. We’ll just have to go. You see, humanists cannot be truly free until all belief and all believers are exterminated. – F.R. Duplantier, “Free to Serve,” 1987